One Laptop for Child is a neo-colonial Trojan horse Defined by dictionary.com neo-colonialism is, “the policy of a strong nation in seeking political and economic hegemony over an independent nation or extended geographical area without necessarily reducing the subordinate nation area to the legal status of a colony. “ One Laptop per child is an education initiative by developed countries to provide developing countries with access to the internet and early life education. The object itself is somewhat of a tradeoff between the developing nation and the developed. This tradeoff can be seen in the way that money must come from the educational budget of the country to pay for the laptop. Although the amount needed is only 5%, this is somewhat substantial. Furthermore, this initiative could be seen as a way of western countries further westernizing the rest of the world. As much as the laptops enable young children to learn, the Western world dictates exactly what they will learn though the use of applications that come with the laptop. In a sense, it is almost cruel to give laptops to a nation whose entire infrastructure cannot support an information economy. Many of the areas that receive the laptops do not have electricity or access to Internet. Although the laptops are able to run on alternate forms of power the society, as a whole cannot function as an information society. A more viable form of aiding these nations would be to inform them of skills that would support the society in which they live, such as irrigation and farming techniques. The hidden agendas of One Laptop for Child are a further example of the neo-colonialism of the Western world.
Defined by dictionary.com neo-colonialism is, “the policy of a strong nation in seeking political and economic hegemony over an independent nation or extended geographical area without necessarily reducing the subordinate nation area to the legal status of a colony. “ One Laptop per child is an education initiative by developed countries to provide developing countries with access to the internet and early life education. The object itself is somewhat of a tradeoff between the developing nation and the developed. This tradeoff can be seen in the way that money must come from the educational budget of the country to pay for the laptop. Although the amount needed is only 5%, this is somewhat substantial. Furthermore, this initiative could be seen as a way of western countries further westernizing the rest of the world. As much as the laptops enable young children to learn, the Western world dictates exactly what they will learn though the use of applications that come with the laptop. In a sense, it is almost cruel to give laptops to a nation whose entire infrastructure cannot support an information economy. Many of the areas that receive the laptops do not have electricity or access to Internet. Although the laptops are able to run on alternate forms of power the society, as a whole cannot function as an information society. A more viable form of aiding these nations would be to inform them of skills that would support the society in which they live, such as irrigation and farming techniques. The hidden agendas of One Laptop for Child are a further example of the neo-colonialism of the Western world.